New version fields in the Project painter

The File and Product Version numeric fields, on the left in the Version group box in the Project painter, are used by Microsoft Installer to determine whether a file needs to be updated when a product is installed. They must have the format:

N,N,N,N

The four numbers can be used to represent the major version, minor version, point release, and build number of your product. They must all be present. If your file versioning system does not use all these components, you can replace the unused numbers with zeroes. For example, 3,1,333 causes an error message to display when you attempt to save or build the project, but 3,1,333,0 does not. The maximum value for any of the numbers in the string is 65535.

The File and Product Version string fields, on the right in the painter, can have any format. These fields display in the executable file's Properties dialog box.

Disabling database connection when compiling

When PowerBuilder compiles an application that contains embedded SQL, it connects to the database profile last used in order to check for database access errors during the build process. For applications that use multiple databases, this can result in spurious warnings during the build since the embedded SQL can be validated only against that single last-used database and not against the databases actually used by the application. In addition, an unattended build, such as a lengthy overnight rebuild, can stall if the database connection cannot be made.

To avoid these issues, you can add a new entry to the PB.INI file:

[pb]dbsign=0

Caution Set the value of dbsign to a non-zero value only when you want to compile without signing on to the database. Compiling without connecting to a database prevents the build process from checking for database errors and may therefore result in runtime errors later.

Clip window description column

A new column, Description, has been added to the Clip window. When you add a new clip and enter a name for the clip, the Clip Description dialog box opens so that you can enter a description. To change the description later, select the clip's name and click the Modify button in the Clip window.